New York Conservatives Push Back on Women’s Rights Package

Conservative leaders in the New York state Senate are planning on fighting a women’s rights proposal from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo over provisions related to abortion.

Governor Cuomo has been speaking in support of his “Women’s Equality Act,” though a bill has not yet been submitted to the state Senate. The “Women’s Equality Act” would provide equal pay for equal work, workplace protections against discrimination, and measures against violence against women. The bill would also allow for late-term abortion to protect a woman’s health, not just her life, and would protect abortion access in New York should Roe v. Wade be overturned.

New York Senate Conservatives are already pledging to fight the bill once it is proposed.

“I don’t understand what the issue is,” New York Senate chairman Dean Skelos (R-Nassau) said. “In New York state, you have Medicaid spending on abortion, there is no parental consent, there is no parental notification, you can pretty much have an abortion any time you want … I think it’s really a non-issue.”

But Governor Cuomo’s office views things differently.

“State law needs to be updated so that it is consistent with federal standards and once and for all makes a woman’s right to choose unassailable in New York state,” Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi told the Wall Street Journal. “This is not an expansion of abortion rights. It’s a codification of existing federal law. Any suggestion to the contrary is not only baseless, but a distortion of the facts.”